


Bonds

by The_IPRE



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Card Games, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Sickfic, a collection of drabbles i posted on tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2019-11-26 16:17:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 7,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18182879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_IPRE/pseuds/The_IPRE
Summary: A collection of drabbles I posted on tumblr, feel free to send in your own prompts!





	1. "Are you flirting with me?"

**Author's Note:**

> I can write for TAZ, CR, DEH, and The Magicians, and am taking prompts here and on my [tumblr](https://the-ipre.tumblr.com)

“Are you flirting with me?” Lup asked with a smile, and Barry felt his heart stutter.

“What? Uh, nah, I was just- I was wondering if you might want to…go with me to retrieve the Light of creation? It landed pretty close to here, there shouldn’t be much trouble.” Barry pushed up his glasses with the back of a hand, shoulders pulling up towards his ears as he felt a blush starting to crawl up his neck and his regrets beginning to boil.

Lup laughed, jostling his shoulder with hers before giving him a thumbs up. “I’d love to.”

Barry smiled back, expression softening as she tucked a piece of hair back behind one long ear. He wanted to keep realistic expectations for their adventure, but he could already feel his hopes skyrocketing.


	2. “You’re getting crumbs all over my bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by eyesprawl on tumblr

“You’re getting crumbs all over my bed.” Kravitz lifted an eyebrow at Taako, unimpressed with the elf’s choice of snacks, but all he got back was a waved hand.

“Our bed. Also, don’t even sweat it, I’ve got prestidigitation, and that shit’s a cantrip.” Taako kept crunching on the Fantasy Triscuits he was eating, before offering the box to his husband. “You want one? They’re fire-roasted-tomato-flavor, because you know I get the good stuff.”

Kravitz looked over from the corner of his eye, a dangerous smile starting to pull at his lips. “Rosemary is the best kind of Fantasy Triscuit.”

Taako let out a squawk, pulling the box in towards his chest. “I can’t believe that I married an uncultured man,” he said, ears twitching back in mock anger. “ _Rosemary is the best kind of Fantasy Triscuit_ , my ass. The flavor profile is  _okay_ , if you don’t have anything other than cardboard to eat, but  _really_.”

Kravitz leaned over and pressed a kiss to Taako’s temple with a grin, and the elf scoffed. “Nuh-uh, you aren’t getting off that easy for your food crimes.” Despite his words, Taako was fighting a losing battle trying to hold back his smile.

After he ate another cracker, he wiped his flavor-dusty fingers on Kravitz’s arm, resulting in a disgruntled noise and an arm thrown over Taako’s shoulders to pull him close. 


	3. "Make me"

“Hey, give those back!”

“Make me,” Dani said, sticking her tongue out with a grin as she held Aubrey’s shades high above her head. 

Aubrey grabbed Dani’s arm, trying to pull it down far enough that she could reclaim her lost property, but she was an only child and didn’t have experience in this kind of warfare. Dani, who had grown up with a smattering of siblings and lived in the same building as  _Jake Coolice_ , had a clear advantage.

She clearly wasn’t expecting Aubrey to play dirty, though, and when a quick kiss was pressed to her lips she lowered her hand just enough that the glasses were plucked from her loose grip.

As Aubrey slid her shades back on, vibrant orange eye being hidden just the same as her original brown one, there was a flush rising on her cheeks. “I got you,” she said, goofy smile undercut by a touch of nerves. She was sure that her blush was as bright red as her hair, and it only got worse when Dani rested her hand against Aubrey’s warm cheek.

Dani leaned in, and for a moment she brushed her lips against Aubrey’s. 

Her eyes widened with shock, but before she could close them and savor the kiss, there was a finger jabbed into her side and Dani danced off, taking her hand and lips along with her in a cloud of laughter.

“Wha- hey, that’s cheating!” Aubrey gave chase, dodging around the assorted furniture in the Lodge, and laughter and footfalls rung through the air.


	4. "He's so pretty I'm going to faint"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by toooceanblue

“He’s so pretty I’m gonna  _faint_.” Lup’s head was buried in her hands, but she could practically feel her twin’s head swivel towards her at her mumbled words. “Aw, fuck.”

“ _Aw fuck_  indeed, Lulu,” Taako said, and when she peeked at him through her fingers there was a self-satisfied grin curling across his face. “You think that Barry Bluejeans, of denim fame, the one that we will be spending two months on a journey with, is…pretty?”

Lup pushed at Taako’s shoulder with a forced scowl, and when her eyes were drawn back to their coworker she could hear gagging from next to her. Barry was sitting on the lip of a fountain, eating what looked to be an egg salad sandwich, reading a thick tome with a leather binding, and Lup crossed her arms and forced her eyes away. “Maybe not…pretty, but, you know, he’s…”

“Got a dad-bod that would put any self-respecting suburban house husband to shame?”

Lup groaned, dropping her head back into her hands. “Don’t do this.” She could feel her ears pressing tighter back to her head and regretted how little control she had over them, but even without that particular tell she knew that Taako would be able to read her. He was her  _brother_ , after all, and she knew his embarrassing shit just as clearly as he knew hers.

There was a flick at her shoulder and Lup moved to flick him back, but Taako held up his hands in a ceasefire with a raise of his eyebrows. “Five gold says you don’t ask him out in the two months you two are trapped in an aluminum can together.”

“I’m not going to ask him out during our  _scientific research mission_ -”

“Five gold~” Taako sing-songed, holding out a hand to shake.

Lup frowned, but before Taako could pull his hand away she reached out and shook it. “Five gold.” There was a sharp determination in her smile, the kind that made teachers check that nothing was on fire, and across the plaza Barry had the sudden feeling that he should be worried.


	5. "Oh you're jealous"

“Oh, you’re…jealous?” Barry looked a little confused, and something in Lup wanted to laugh.

The louder part, the part that had been crawling out of her newly regained skin at watching Barry ramble on about the benefits of using your own bones in necromancy to a group of other party-goers who looked on with varying levels of interest, made her press her lips tight in what could only generously be called a smile. “Babe, it’s- ugh. Jealousy is an ugly emotion.”

“You can’t just quote  _Fantasy Brooklyn Nine-Nine_ ,” Barry said, and there was a softness in his smile lines. They were tucked in an alcove away from the rest of the annual university party, and the muffled laughter and music made its way to them in a quiet throb.

“Says who?” Lup blew out a breath. “No, I know, it’s just…we were apart for twelve years, babe, and I basically didn’t exist? Which, you know, wasn’t  _great_  for the ol’ brain space. I- I don’t know, I guess I miss you, and I know we wake up in the same bed every morning, but. It’s different.”

“It’s not just the seven of us anymore?”

Lup smiled, small and quirked to one side. “Yeah, something like that.”

Barry reached out and took her hand, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles absentmindedly while he thought about what he was going to say. “We have- well, we have  _lives_ now, which is buckwild, ‘cause after a century of running I didn’t know if that was ever gonna happen, and-”

“I know, I should just deal with it and not get possessive because my husband has hot takes that he’s sharing with people who aren’t me.” Lup laughed a little, but looked back at Barry when he squeezed her hand.

“I was gonna say that it’s important that we don’t get so into our new lives, that we get rid of our old ones. We lived those hundred years, as- as whack as they were, and trying to act like we didn’t is, uh. A bad plan.”

There was a moment of quiet as the noise around them seemed to swell, and then an  _oh_  slipped out of Lup’s mouth on the exhale. She surged forward, curling her free hand around the back of Barry’s neck as she kissed him. He kissed back, but it was more tender than passionate and after a few moments had passed she pulled away to rest her forehead against his. “I’m- thanks.” Drawing her hand away, she adjusted the edge of his collar before sliding her palm to rest on his shoulder. 

The two of them were still so close that their breaths mingled, and Barry brought Lup’s hand up to press a kiss to the knuckles. “Do you wanna bounce?”

“Are you sure? We came here for you, I don’t wanna deprive those folks of the smartest man in the multiverse.” They were both smiling, and when Barry laughed Lup could feel it.

He squeezed her hand. “I’m sure that they’ll survive. Besides, my wife and I have some  _Fantasy Worst Cooks_  to catch up on.”

Lup laughed, sliding her arm around his waist and leaning her head against his shoulder. “How could I refuse such a proposal?” They started towards the door, and Lup’s smile stayed in place as she pulled Barry a little closer.

They might have been making a new life, settling down in a way that she never had before, but there were some universal constants.


	6. “If you steal the covers again I’m going to put my cold feet on you!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by warptimeandspace on Tumblr!

“If you steal the covers again, I’m gonna put my cold feet on you.” Even through the dark, Taako could feel Kravitz’s glare. He had dark vision, which certainly helped get the feeling across, but the tired energy radiating off the reaper was palpable.

Taako, as ever, was an expert at diffusing tension with words and a wink. “And then what?”

Kravitz flopped back down onto the bed with a groan, and even though he buried his face in his hands there was the faintest curl of a smile still visible. “It’s so late- er, early, and I just wanna sleep in bed with my beloved husband while not sacrificing my own safety.” He peeked through his fingers at Taako, who just stuck his tongue out. 

“Pretty words aren’t gonna get these bad boys away from me,” he said, picking at the layers of comforters. It was the pits of winter, and despite their house’s heating there was nothing like suffocating under seventeen blankets. “If you wanted to warm up, though…” Taako waggled his eyebrows, sputtering as Kravitz flopped a hand onto his face. 

“You drive a hard bargain, but never let it be said that I don’t know a good deal when I see one.” Kravitz’s words would have been more impressive if they weren’t mumbled around the tired cotton filling his head and tinted by a not-quite-British accent. “Scootch.”

Taako rolled on his side, facing away from Kravitz, who lifted up the blankets and slid in behind his husband. Their legs tangled together, Taako’s protected from the cold by pajama pants with binicorns on them, and he let out a satisfied hum when Kravitz slung an arm over his body and pulled him close. 

“ _Ack_ -” Taako tensed at the brush of cold lips against the nape of his neck, and there was a brush of air against his skin. He opened his mouth to comment on the  _audacity_ , trying to save face against the smile pulling at his expression, but nothing came out as he felt Kravitz snuggle in a bit tighter. There was a sigh, and then a press of a forehead against his back, and even though Kravitz didn’t even really need to sleep, technically, his breathing began to even out. 

Linking his fingers with Kravitz’s, Taako closed his eyes before mumbling one last thing, feeling so at home despite his jokes. “You win this time.”


	7. “Don’t get up - I’ll do it.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by daughterofsarenrae on Tumblr!

“Don’t get up - I’ll do it.” Lup smiled at Barry – well, as much as a skull with phantom skin could smile – as he put a hand on her thigh and lifted himself up from the couch. He brushed a kiss against the top of her head, reveling in the simple fact that Lup was still- well, not alive, but  _there_. 

Padding across the floor to the kitchen of their apartment, Barry gave a shrug to the air. “Least I could do. Besides, last time you tried to mage hand yourself some tea, you ended up yeeting it across the room too quickly.”

“That was my favorite mug, too,” Barry heard her mutter from behind him, and he smiled. The whole act was functionally useless, she couldn’t actually drink the tea and if she tried hard enough she could make it herself anyway, but it was…

Well, he finally had her back after twelve long years, and he wasn’t exactly going to pass an opportunity to live in that domestic bliss that they had missed out on. Besides, the act itself was comforting, a reminder of his mom making him lemon and ginger tea for sore throats as a kid, and it grounded him back in reality.

“Green tea?”

“Actually, do you know if we still have that salted caramel tea? I know that we picked it up a couple weeks ago, but Taako might have nabbed it when he was here for dinner the other day.” Lup laid a skeletal arm against the back of the couch, red robe blowing in an invisible wind, and when Barry pulled out the right box from the cabinet they both let out a small cheer.

The water was already set to boil, and he tossed over a smile as he moved through the kitchen. “We prevail over the forces of death and your brother yet again,” Barry said, grabbing down a pair of worn mugs from a different cupboard. Lup’s was dented from seventy-six years of multi-dimensional travel and the original insignia had been picked off until all that remained was a series of colors, while Barry’s proudly declared  _Neverwinter University_. He’d gotten it when he worked there for a bit, back when he’d been pretending to be alive, and it had seen more shit than most adventurers. 

Things were quiet for a bit after that, the rustle of Lup turning pages cutting through the faint murmur of water in the kettle, and just before it boiled Barry cut the heat. He poured the water into the prepared mugs and brought them over while they were still steeping, settling one into the hand that Lup held out and resting his on the coffee table. 

“Cheers?”

“Cheers,” Lup said, pressing a skeletal kiss to Barry’s cheek before she slung her legs back over his and went back to her book, tea in hand. The air smelled like caramel, warm and homey, and after a hundred years of running they were finally at peace.


	8. “I wouldn’t change a thing about you.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by daughterofsarenrae on Tumblr!

“I wouldn’t change a thing about you.” Lup looked so  _fucking_ sincere, and Taako had to look past one of her long ears to avoid making eye contact.

He scoffed, fingers itching to recast his glamour, but instead he just tangled them in his loose braid. This was his sister, and even though the bags under his eyes were thicker than hers and his nose was more bent and her freckles had been replaced by pockmarks on his face, he wasn’t going to hide who he had become. 

They’d spent enough time apart, they didn’t have time for bullshit like dancing around issues and being emotionally stunted.  _If past me could see me now, being all open and shit…_

He blew out a breath, glancing past Lup’s eyes, checking to see that  _yep, she was still looking super caring and like she didn’t 100% know how to handle this either, great_ , and he focused on the framed picture on the wall behind her. They were in her apartment so it was some painting of all the birds (with a few of their new friends thrown in for good measure), and Taako couldn’t hold back the harsh laugh that bubbled out of him with a shrug. 

“You know you don’t have to say that, right? There’s plenty of shit that I want to change, like, uh, the past fuckin’ decade? A hundred years of running through walking, talking dust planets until we find ourselves somewhere newer and, dare I say it, somewhat shittier than back home? And-  _fuck_ , Lulu, we used to be all that we had! Now I don’t even have your face, I’m like some- some Extra #6 from the  _Taaco Twins Extraordinaire_ , ‘cause, you know, I did some dumb shit while you were trapped in a  _fucking umbrella_ -”

Lup’s hands grabbed the sides of Taako’s face, and she flicked him lightly on the forehead when his darting eyes refused to focus on hers. “Not gonna argue with you on some of that, some resoundingly shitty stuff has happened. Talking about change, though… _fuck_ , Koko, you’ve let people in! You have a fiance, who  _did_  want to arrest me for death crimes before we smoothed that out but it’s all good now, you’ve got…” She paused, scooting closer until their knees touched where they were sitting. “You’ve got people that you care about, and- and who care about you, and it’s not just us. Shit is and was whack, sure,” and at that Taako snorted, dropping his braid, “and shit’s changed, but…”

He pulled her hands away from his face, dropping them to pick at the fabric of his pants. “Careful about those greasy hands, this new face doesn’t do too well with any more gunk than it already has.” Despite his words, there was still a quirk to his lips that was pure  _Taako._  It was the look of telling a caravan leader that  _yes, we are both trustworthy and excellent traveling companions, why would you think otherwise?_  It was a smile of a lifetime of stolen shoes and baubles, and one that sat so securely on his face that it didn’t matter if his eyes were duller or his lips were thinner or his hair was limper. It was a grin that said  _don’t even flip_ , and one that was mirrored back, a little softer, by Lup.

“Just ‘cause you’ve got a new face doesn’t mean that you can get out of being my brother.”

The two laughed, and Taako leaned back to rest his arm along the back of his chair. No magic, just him and his sister and their new home.“Nah, you’re not getting rid of me that easy.”


	9. “I told you not to fall in love with me"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by warptimeandspace on Tumblr!

“I told you not to fall in love with me,” Lup said through the artichoke dip that she had shoved in her mouth a second before Barry had walked into their kitchen. It was three in the morning, and his human eyes could only see the shape of his wife by the harsh light of the still-open refrigerator. Her shoulders had been hunched and it had looked like she was going to book it, but when she realized who he was she had just started laughing, almost choking on the dip. 

Barry moved over to pat her on the back, rubbing circles across her thin nightshirt while placing a kiss against her temple. “Well, you told me that over a hundred years ago, I must have forgotten.” She laughed again, finally swallowing the dip before hopping up onto the counter. “That, or I didn’t ever expect to see my hot coworker at her most goblinoid form. Could be either of the two.”

Lup closed the refrigerator’s door with a mage hand, pulling Barry into the space between her legs, and in the last bits of light before the room went dark he could see a faint reflected glow in her eyes. “I don’t regret it, though. For the record.”

She leaned forward to kiss him, light and easy and  _simple_  after everything, and he laughed and pulled back a couple inches after a moment. “I love you, Lup, I really do, but you also taste like sour cream, spinach, and old socks.”

“Old socks? I do not.” She tapped his thigh with her foot, and even though he couldn’t see it he was sure that she was making a suitably offended and dramatic expression.

“Hate to tell you, babe, but you kinda do. How old was that?”

He felt her sides pull up and down in a shrug. “I dunno, I found it in the fridge. Can’t be that old, though, I’m pretty sure it was from the night that Taako and Kravitz were both planning on proposing, which was… _fuck_ , was that a couple weeks ago?” There was an exaggerated  _bleh_  as she stuck out her tongue. “Gotta get some more of that.”

Barry smiled, absentmindedly running his thumbs over her skin. She squirmed, a bit ticklish, and squeezed his shoulders in return. “I’m going to Fantasy Costco tomorrow, I could pick us up some?”

“Uh, babe, who do you think I am? Best chef in a hundred and two universes doesn’t do  _Fantasy Costco artichoke dip_ , not when I can whip that shit up at home.” 

“A lot of effort for a midnight snack.”

“You know it, I don’t do basic.” There was a smile in both their voices. “If you’re there, though, could you pick me up some more Fantasy Ritz? Kravitz’s birds keep eating all of our stock.”

“Got it. Now, is it time to go head back to bed, or do you plan on staying up until four snacking on leftover mac ‘n cheese?” Lup hummed, before hopping off the counter and looping her arm through Barry’s.

“Not that that’s not tempting, but I do think there’s something else I’d rather eat.”

Barry let out a snorting laugh, aiming a kiss at Lup before letting her lead them through the dark apartment. “How could I say no to such a request?”


	10. “No one’s going to hurt you"

“No one’s going to hurt you,” the cop said, looking down at Sloane with what appeared to be a tinge of worry, if her eyes didn’t deceive her. 

Sloane struggled into a sitting position, leaning back against the alleyway wall behind her, and pressed her hand onto her bleeding shoulder with a hiss. “Other than that fucker who shot me with an arrow, of course.” 

The cop shrugged, looking a bit sheepish while fiddling with the raven mask that had fallen off of Sloane in the chase. “I didn’t know that they were going to do that.” She paused, before thrusting the mask back towards Sloane. Despite the fact that she was sitting, the two were basically at eye level. 

“Didn’t know the militia was gonna shoot someone? You’ve gotta be pretty new at this,” Sloane said, not quite fitting her mask back on yet. The woman’s curly hair caught the sun and held it, shining like the battlewagon piece that she had been in the middle of reallocating when the Goldcliff Militia had descended upon her. 

The lady frowned, crossing her – rather buff – arms. “I thought that we were just coming after you because of the robberies that you’ve been doing – which  _are_  illegal, by the way-”

“Got that.”

“But they were saying that you had murdered Mr. Albright? And…I don’t know, but you’re not a killer.” The woman’s eyes were set, and Sloane raised her eyebrows.

“If  _I’m_  not a killer, who are you?” Sloane was tensing, hearing noises rattling along the street, but she wasn’t going to run quite yet. She did put her mask on, though; it made her braver. Gave her that kick of adrenaline needed to stay talking to the hot, apparently somewhat moral cop, while the danger of arrest grew on every side.

The woman’s chest puffed out a bit. “I’m Hurley. And you  _are_  under arrest, but, please, would you come quietly? I-” She blew out a breath, taking a step forward with cuffs she pulled from her pocket. “I meant what I said earlier. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

 Sloane laughed, scrambling fully to her feet with a hidden wince at the pain in her shoulder. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m gonna have to pass.” Grabbing at a window ledge just above her, she scurried up and paused for a moment, crouched and looking down at the halfling below her. “Nice meeting you, though. I hope next time it’s not because you’re trying to arrest me.” Pulling up the glass, she tossed the woman a salute and dropped through the window.

“See you around,  _Hurley._ ” With that, she set off running towards the nearest set of stairs, leaving Hurley behind to explain where the notorious Raven had disappeared to this time.


	11. “You’re the one thing keeping me sane right now.”

“You’re the one thing keeping me sane right now.” Taako felt a little bit crazy, talking to his umbrastaff, but he figured nobody could blame him if he had lost a couple of his marbles. 

He’d just gotten back over a century of memories, learned that the apocalypse was happening, surprise!, and had to reconcile the image of  _Lucretia_ , mousy scribe of the Starblaster, with the Madam Director who had forced him to fight some ogres just for shits and giggles. Sure, he’d ended up threatening her, but he was fucking justified in that. She’d taken everything and-

And now, after everything, after all that shit that was lost came rushing back, he still didn’t have Lup. After drinking the ichor he’d looked around for a moment, forgetting that she was still gone, and now he was going to save the world – or more likely, die trying – and all that was keeping him going was the solid wood of the umbrella’s handle. It was clenched tightly in his fingers, and it was the only thing keeping them from shaking apart.

The Hunger came, black shining ink pouring from the sky to blot out all their stories, and even as he fought the hordes Taako kept whispering things to the umbrella.  _You’re all that’s keeping me going. We could really use you right about now. Fuck, Lulu, I miss you._

The handle grew warmer and began to tremble, but then it was thrown from his hands, and all of a sudden Ango had it and was casting a spell that he shouldn’t have been able to cast, and-

_Oh._

The final gunk that had been spread across his mind’s eye was cleaned off, and as Angus babbled about how  _that wasn’t him_ , Taako just took back the umbrastaff, saying something that he couldn’t even hear over the rushing of blood and roaring of flames that choked his ears. 

“You’re the only thing that’s keeping me sane right now,” he repeated, lifting the staff in the air, and on the exhale more words were pulled from his numb mouth. “Please let me be right. I- I can’t do this, not without you, Lup.”

With that, he brought the umbrella down on his knee, and it snapped, and the world exploded into fire, and for the first time in a decade, Taako was home.


	12. “You make me feel alive."

“You make me feel alive,” Kravitz said, and his hands were  _warm_  where they held Taako’s. There was a quiet  _aw_  from the crowd – probably Lup, maybe Magnus – but Taako hardly noticed it. 

This was their day, his and Kravitz’s, and he wasn’t going to cry because even if all of his makeup was glamoured so it wouldn’t run, he wasn’t going to cry at his own goddamn wedding just because his almost-husband said his vows. Sure, he couldn’t be faulted if he cried, but he also had a reputation to maintain.

Even though the only others in the room were just the other birds and select members of the B.o.B, and they’d all seen him at much worse, still. It was the principle of things.

At least, that was what he told himself as he stared into Kravitz’s bright eyes, letting the rest of the world fade away.

“Before I met you, I was stuck in a rut. I had a job, and I was good at it, and that was all I needed. Then, one day, on a mission to capture these death criminals, one of them told me that I looked like salt. You had a hat that was two feet tall perched on top of your helmet, and you just…weren’t afraid of me.” There was a quirk to the corner of Kravitz’s smile, revealing a pointed tooth, and his hands tightened briefly around Taako’s. “I thought it would be a bit of fun, adventure being the spice of life and that sort of thing, but then…”

“Well, things didn’t exactly shake out as planned, did they?” There was faint laughter from around them, but it felt distant and blurred to Taako. He only had eyes for Kravitz, he only had ears for this man that he was marrying, that he was – shockingly enough – in love with, and there was a brief moment where he couldn’t believe that this was happening. It had to be just another cycle, right? Another shitty year that he would leave behind and forget, something to cut and run from as soon as he could, because otherwise what was he  _doing_ , getting so attached?

But then Kravitz laughed, briefly resting his forehead against Taako’s, and those thoughts were forced away. Even if shit  _did_  go south, he wasn’t going to run away from something good and true just because he was a coward.

He was better than that.

Brushing his thumbs against Taako’s knuckles, Kravitz pulled back. “You have- I never could’ve expected any of this, you know that? I never thought that I would be doing anything like this, especially not with someone who was my bounty. You changed that, though, is the thing. You made me realize that there was more to life than all of that, that there actually  _was_  a life out there.”

He paused, blinking back what might have been tears, and Taako could have cussed right there because  _fuck_ , he was starting to cry too, but he wasn’t going to ruin his husband’s vows just because of his pride.

Taako did a lot of things because of his pride, but he wouldn’t ruin this.

“You make me feel alive, Taako, and- and I want to keep feeling alive with you, every day. For…for as long as we can.”


	13. "Son of a bitch."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by yellowmagicalgirl on Tumblr.

“Son of a bitch,” Sloane cursed, firing a bolt of magic at the battlewagon who had just pulled ahead. The finish line of the race pulled closer with every second, and when she glanced down Hurley’s curly hair was limp with sweat where it escaped around the mask, her knuckles whitening with how tightly she was holding onto the wheel.

Sloane loosed another tangled bolt that managed to twist around one of the wheels of the other wagon, shattering the spokes, and a smile came to her face at the crunching noise that rose over the clattering of her own vehicle. The wheel collapsed, bringing the battlewagon down along with it, and she waved at them as Hurley put all of her weight on the pedal and the Raven and the Ram pulled ahead.

Laughing, she ducked back down into the wagon. “How are we looking, babe?”

“Can’t say for sure, but I think we’ll be able to get that new core you were looking at,” and Sloane couldn’t see her girlfriend’s face but she could hear the smile in her voice. 

She rapped her staff against the side of the wagon and lifted up her mask a touch, darting a kiss against Hurley’s head with adrenaline pumping in her ears. “Let’s kick some ass,” she whooped with a sharp grin, settling her mask back down and hoisting herself back up so she could protect their lead.

“Fuck yeah!” Hurley shouted, bright and laughing and so alive, and somehow it seemed like their wagon went even faster.

Dust kicked up and Sloane was glad for the lenses in the eyes of her mask, letting her see clearly enough to throw down a bramble behind them when a locomotive-inspired wagon made the bad decision of trying to catch up. Straining metal and creaking bolts tore through the air and she ducked down as one beamed past where her head was a moment before, and a loud horn practically shook the wagon.

A moment later, Hurley was pulling the wheel to the side, and as the wagon skidded to a stop feet from the edge of the cliff and past the finish line, the cheers of the two women were so loud that they hurt Sloane’s ears, reverberating in the metal interior as masks were lifted for a victory kiss.


	14. "You smell nice"

“You smell nice,” Lup said, crinkling her nose jokingly at Barry as he stood in the middle of their living room, assorted blood-and-rot splatters on his robe. Given how strong the smell was to his own nose, it was probably even worse for hers, seeing how she had recently been returned to her body and all those sensations that she had been missing out on were back ten times as strong.

She did have a stuffy nose, though, so maybe she was just saying that to make a point. Wouldn’t be the first time she would do such a thing, and she wouldn’t be  _Lup,_  the love of his life, without that sense of drama.

“Yeah, uh, sorry about that,” Barry said, trying to prestidigitate away the worst of the stains. “Got caught up in a necromantic circle, while Kravitz was trying to take ‘em out they asked me for advice. I told them to puree the heart they were offering-”

“Which blew up the circle?”

“Which blew up the circle.” Barry sighed, peeling off his robe and dropping it in a heap in the corner. He could deal with that later, but for now he just wanted to relax, let his muscles unwind – because only now, after over a hundred years, was he really starting to feel his age – and sit with his wife. “How was your sick day?”

“Well, babe,” Lup said, leaning into Barry when he sat down next to her. “Having skin and all that jazz again is fun, don’t get me wrong, but I sure do miss breathing.” He laughed, and when she tried to join in a cough wracked through her chest. There was a sharp feeling of worry, because he’d gone for so long without her that it felt like the smallest thing could shatter the dream that Lup was finally back, but when she wiped her hands on her sweatpants –  _grodie_ , a voice that sounded like Taako’s murmured in his mind – he locked down his nerves. This was  _Lup_ , of all people, who had ripped out her soul and been all the stronger for it, and a little cold wouldn’t get her so easily. “Blech, I should get some Fantasy Vicks, my chest fucking hurts. Sure you should be sitting this close, though? ‘M pretty sure that I’m still diseased.”

Barry hummed with a smile, before slinging an arm over her shoulders and pulling her closer. “I’ve got a high constitution score, I’ll be fine. You, though. Is tonight a chicken soup kind of night?”

Lup pulled her hands through the strands of his hair while she thought, and judging by the easing of the smell of necromantic gunk, she’d dealt with some of the blood left on him. “Missed a spot. And, I would say chicken noodle, but I also don’t super want to make any, and I also don’t super want to eat burnt soup, and I love you but you still don’t know how to not burn the noodles.”

“Ouch. But also, you’re right.”

“Natch.”

“How about ramen? I can make it, you can add however much of the flavor packet as your expert flavor pallet deems fit?” Barry ran his hand up and down Lup’s arm, smiling when he felt her burrow in deeper to his side. 

She hummed, and he could feel the vibrations in his own chest. “That sounds good. For now, though-” and her words were cut off by another series of coughs, and she grumbled. “Fuck, I hate being sick. For now, though, could you just stay here?”

“I am here,” Barry said with a grin, and then there was a  _thwap_  as one of Lup’s ears flicked him on the cheek. “Of course. Dinner can wait.” Lup leaned back against him, resting her head on his shoulder, and he tilted his head against the top of hers. From there, he had a clear line of sight to his work robe, and there was a slight sizzle in the air as some gunk began eating into the material. “Any thoughts on what I should do with that?”

“Burn it.” Lup’s answer was instantaneous, and he laughed, turning to place a kiss on the top of her head before settling back against the couch. He could feel her breathing, chest rising and falling against his, and as they simply existed together, that movement repeated a chorus in his head of  _she’s alive, she’s alive, she’s alive._


	15. "This is a fucking disaster"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by daughterofsarenrae on tumblr!

“This is a fucking disaster,” Angus said, fingers steepled under his chin. The cookies on the rack in front of him weren’t  _technically_  terrible, he was sure that they could be eaten without causing too much food poisoning, but they were charred and yet somehow undercooked in the middle. 

Lup dropped an elbow to lean against his head, taking a better look at the mistakes. “Come on, they aren’t that bad-”

“Ango’s right,” Taako said, grabbing a cookie and taking a bite out of it. The resulting crunch was so loud that Angus would be shocked if none of his teeth had cracked. “These’re a fuckin’ mess.” With that, he ate the rest of it.

Angus’s eyes were wide behind his glasses, fingers pressed tightly together as he waited to see if there would be any…constructive criticism. What Taako had said wasn’t a  _lie_ , but it certainly wasn’t anything that Angus didn’t already know. Wary, he reached out and grabbed a cookie of his own, just to have something to hold that he could focus on.

“So, first thing,” Taako said, swallowing once more before sending a mage hand to go fill him a glass of water. “Is that the flour was off. Being up on the moon base fucks with, I don’t know, atmosphere and moisture in the air and that shit, and you’ve gotta measure the get the right measure of flour so that  _this_  doesn’t happen.” He poked a hole through the undercooked middle of one of the cookies on the rack, dropping a chocolate chip to the counter that Lup snatched and ate.

“Taako’s got a point,” Lup said, talking over the resulting  _of course I do_  from her twin. “But, also, the oven might’ve been a smidgen too hot. Cooked the outside edges before the inside bits could even get warm.” As Angus pulled a notebook from his pocket, scribbling notes into the margins of the recipe that he had already transcribed from Taako’s lesson, Lup pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the counter. “Really, though, if you’re having trouble with all that, there’s no shame in just eating the dough. Tastes better raw-”

Taako groaned, loudly enough to cut Lup off. “I don’t want the kid getting salmonella, Lulu, if he gets sick, who’s gonna heal him? Merle?”

“There  _are_  clerics other than Merle, sir,” Angus said, putting his cookie back down and pushing up his glasses. “And I  _have_  eaten raw cookie dough without getting sick before.”

“See? He knows what’s up.” Lup ruffled his hair, ignoring Angus’s sputtering. “Also, I know that Taako might have said 375º ‘cause he’s a Fantasy Toll House purist, but 350 will give you a more even bake.” Nodding dutifully, Angus made some notes to the recipe he’d written down previously, ducking without even thinking as Taako grabbed a cookie and threw it at Lup.

Angus couldn’t hide his smile as the twins bickered over him, threatening to turn the kitchen into a war zone as they argued over  _tradition_  and  _modifying recipes_. The two of them were among the most accomplished wizards in all the planar systems, chefs that could challenge any restauranteur, but to him they were family.


	16. "I said I love you"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by toooceanblue on tumblr!

“I  _said_  I love you,” Barry said, but he couldn’t hide his growing smile and Lup would  _swear_  that his glasses did an anime glint. 

She slammed her cards down on the table, lifting herself out of her seat, and on either side of her Taako and Magnus scooted themselves out of the danger zone. “Just  _saying_  that you love me doesn’t excuse what you did!” Shaking with anger, she pointed down at the stack of cards in the middle of the table. “You fucking  _Draw Four_ ed me! And,” she fumed, and at that point there might have been a flame or two licking through her hair, “I had one card left! This was an intentional  _murder_!”

Magnus, who had long ago given up on the game, scooted a bit further back in his chair. Taako, holding his three cards close, eagerly watched the brewing fight.

Game nights almost always were dangerous, and more than one wall had gotten scorched. They were all competitive motherfuckers, though, and they would be lying if any of them tried to say that Taako hadn’t transmuted a part of the table to pass off a card or two, or that Barry hadn’t verged on commiting death crimes. They were some of the most powerful magic users in all of existence (and one  _extremely_  rowdy man), and they knew what they were getting in to anytime that the gang met up for cards.

This, though, was a  _betrayal_  of the worst sort. 

“Well, you  _did_  stack  _Draw Two_ s at me until I had to draw eight  _fuckin’_  cards in a turn,” Barry said, folding his hands and tucking away his cards so that they couldn’t be seen. “It’s equivalent exchange.” There was a laugh under his words, but as Lup sat down and leveled a death glare in his direction, his smile turned a  _touch_  more apologetic.

“I can’t fucking believe this,” Lup said, muttering with every card that she drew. “Sixty-three years we’ve been married, and you  _Draw Four_  me. I’m wounded. Taako, it’s your go.”

The elf in question clicked his tongue, leaning back in his seat while gazing across his cards with far more aplomb than was needed. “Uh, catch cha’boy up, what’s the color, Barold?”

“That would be green,” Barry said, pushing his glasses up while staring directly at Taako. Everyone at the table knew that Taako didn’t have any green cards.

“Green, hmm?” Staring Barry dead in the eye, Taako took a card from the deck. Then another. And another. 

He kept drawing, and around the point when he passed eight new additions to his hand Lup started laughing. “At least I got to stop at four, Koko. Looks like it’s time to say goodbye to the other good hand.” Taako flicked his fingers, conjuring a glittering blue mage hand to flip her off while he continued to draw cards.

“You know the color’s green, right Taako?” Magnus leaned against the table, and nobody in their right mind would believe that he was actually trying to be helpful. “A wild card would work too, do you have any of those?”

“Over a hundred years I’ve known you, and this is the thanks I get?” It was getting difficult for Taako to hold all of his cards in one hand. “Y’all’re a fucking thankless lot, if-  _HA!”_  With that, he slapped down a green reverse. “Just you wait, I’ve been stockpiling ammo back here.”

“Well, fuck,” Lup said, but a smile began to curl across her lips and Barry had the sudden feeling that something terrible was about to happen. “Hey babe?”

“What’s up?”

“I love you.” With that, she put down a  _Draw Four_  of her own, and the table broke out screaming.


End file.
